As a result of an ongoing dispute between Google (YouTube's parent company) and GEMA, the primary German performance rights organization, a number of Russian YouTube videos have been blocked from within Germany. The reason? These videos contain background music playing from a Russian car radio.

This is just the latest example of a ridiculous situation that has developed in Germany. According to a recent study by OpenDataCity, more than 60 percent of the top 1,000 YouTube videos are unavailable in Germany because Google assumes the music rights might be owned by GEMA.

Germany doesn’t have an equivalent of the American fair useprovision, which this would almost certainly fall under in the United States. Google did not immediately respond to Ars’ requests for comment. However, Google did provide a statement (Google Translate) on February 16, 2013 to the German Journalists’ Union (DJV), which first raised the issue last week. (Full disclosure: I was a DJV member when I was living and working in Germany as a journalist from March 2010 to March 2012.)

“YouTube has no insight into what rights GEMA represents,” the Google subsidiary wrote. “Due to the legal and financial risks that result from these processes in the context of GEMA’s [published royalty fee structure], music videos are blocked in Germany.”

Rights group wants a “per stream rate” of $0.005

In its own statement, the DJV pointed to one specific meteorite video, lamenting this sad state of affairs. The group believes the issue is limiting press freedom in Germany.

That video in particular, when viewed from Germany, results in this error message: “Sorry, this video, which includes music from [Sony Music Entertainment], is not available in Germany because GEMA has not granted the publishing rights thereto.”

When Ars asked GEMA via Twitter how it even knew whether it held the rights to the song in question, the group’s spokesperson, Ursula Goebel, simply wrote (German): “YouTube apparently blocks arbitrarily.”

Last month, GEMA wrote in a statement that Google’s German-language messages are “extremely misleading.”

“The displayed text gives the false impression that GEMA is categorically refusing to license the use of works of music,” wrote Harald Heker, GEMA’s CEO.

“GEMA has, on the contrary, always been willing to grant YouTube a license and YouTube has always had the option of acquiring a license itself in accordance with the legal regulations. For reasons that are unclear to us, YouTube has in the past not been prepared to go down this route. We have so far purposely avoided taking legal steps so as not to encumber the ongoing negotiations with further legal proceedings.”

According to the Youtube statistics page, there are around one billion views per day from mobile browsers alone. They don't provide figures for total views. At one cent per view, that comes out to $10 million a day from mobile users, or $3.65 billion a year.

Google's total consolidated revenue for 2012 was $50 billion, which includes all Google subsidiaries including Motorola Mobile.

I doubt that mobile youtube views make up such a large share of Google's revenue, and so I find it unlikely that Google makes even $0.01 per view. That is likely why they've refused to bargain on GEMA's terms, they would likely be costing themselves money by making the videos available.

Well that is what happens on countries where there is no democracy or free of speech either. Internet censoring is nothing new.

The Ars article is right on spot. I was shocked how many videos on Youtube get this same error message. Almost none videos works, honestly, Youtube in Germany is like a half mixed bag, some things work some not. And some are not even for digital music content rights. Some videos are banned without even a reason.

Same videos that work everywhere else.

That made me laugh! If you are from US, you don''t get to talk to us Europeans about democracy, free speech and internet censorship. So please, don't embarrass yourself.

Well that is what happens on countries where there is no democracy or free of speech either. Internet censoring is nothing new.

Wait, what? Are you suggesting that Germany is not a democracy or has no free speech protections?

Yes, what you have read. Do you want evidence?

Any country that bans someones opinions based on political or religious believes is not allowing free speech not mention sending people to jail for it. That is far from a democracy but more like a tyranny, not different than burning books on the streets.

If Germany wants music, they have to clean up their IP laws. If I shoot myself in the foot, and then get mad at google for allowing me to shoot myself in the foot, it doesn't change the fact that I did it to myself by being stupid.

Well that is what happens on countries where there is no democracy or free of speech either. Internet censoring is nothing new.

The Ars article is right on spot. I was shocked how many videos on Youtube get this same error message. Almost none videos works, honestly, Youtube in Germany is like a half mixed bag, some things work some not. And some are not even for digital music content rights. Some videos are banned without even a reason.

Same videos that work everywhere else.

That made me laugh! If you are from US, you don''t get to talk to us Europeans about democracy, free speech and internet censorship. So please, don't embarrass yourself.

GEMA did not respond to Ars’ request to pay €0.00375 to GEMA so that a friend in Germany could see the video in question.

I'd put the Fry money meme here, but since they won't take the money you're offering to them it leads me to believe that they have something against Google. Also, it's revenue going into their business, so why are they refusing to take your money?

Well that is what happens on countries where there is no democracy or free of speech either. Internet censoring is nothing new.

Wait, what? Are you suggesting that Germany is not a democracy or has no free speech protections?

Yes, what you have read. Do you want evidence?

Any country that bans someones opinions based on political or religious believes is not allowing free speech not mention sending people to jail for it. That is far from a democracy but more like a tyranny, not different than burning books on the streets.

Uh, no. They voted for those rules. It's might be tyrannical (worth debating, but not relevant here), but it's still democracy. See: tyranny of the majority.

Constitutional protections like in the US inhibit the power of Democracy, otherwise you could literally have a majority of citizens voting away the rights of the minority.

This man is correct. Doesn't help the EUR/USD net change is -.0109 in the past day's trading. For laypeople, the second entry of the pair is always compared against the first so a -.0109 means the USD is 1.09 cents more valuable against the EUR than it was during the open of the previous days trading. More to the point, the exact value of the transaction would very slightly from day to to day. The valuation is way to high, regardless, so no surprise google is a holdout.

Is anybody actually viewing these videos to simply listen to the music? Does Google have to license images from the various auto manufacturers in order to show their likenesses on YouTube? This is absolutely ridiculous.

Uh, no. They voted for those rules. It's might be tyrannical (worth debating, but not relevant here), but it's still democracy. See: tyranny of the majority.

Constitutional protections like in the US inhibit the power of Democracy, otherwise you could literally have a majority of citizens voting away the rights of the minority.

Sure, because of course the definition of what a Democracy (capitalised?) is, and what count as democratic, is completely clear, uncontroversial, and universally agreed upon...

Yes, you are correct, it's completely clear and uncontroversial. Democracy is simply a government ruled by the will of the people, commonly handled by simple majority votes. There isn't anything controversial about the core concept.

Sending people to jail if they think differently. (I don´t care what you think, if someone wants to believe in the devil, I don´t care, im just point this out as “free speech” fact, this are laws to shut up people that do not comply with "their systems", even if this people lunatics they should be allowed to think what they want. Ahh, not there:http://www.dw.de/no-room-for-holocaust- ... /a-1833619

Their famous book is also banned and illegal. Nazis burned books, well they use laws. Funny. But its the same.

Yea, nice country, where a ringtone, a book, or speaking about something in public will land you to jail, not to mention religious intolerance.

Free speech? Sure, only if its “ political right”.

And now try to defend this, and let me ask if this is true in other countries? Yea, maybe Iran and China.

Also, this article in Ars just pointed out music videos. If they search a bit more, they will find that its far more than just music videos. Half of Youtube is banned or filtered.

And if their Internet users knew what systems their government recently purchased for packet filtering from a major security company, then, well, I don´t know, what kind of government is so afraid of their citizenship using the Internet to the point they want to know every single bit they use. Like I said, maybe Iran, China, but this is Europe folks...

This man is correct. Doesn't help the EUR/USD net change is -.0109 in the past day's trading. For laypeople, the second entry of the pair is always compared against the first so a -.0109 means the USD is 1.09 cents more valuable against the EUR than it was during the open of the previous days trading. More to the point, the exact value of the transaction would very slightly from day to to day. The valuation is way to high, regardless, so no surprise google is a holdout.